Awesome podcast with Don Melton at imore.com/debug . It’s a keeper! @iMore @donmelton …
Apple takes a licking but still keeps on…
Forbes’ Nigam Arora on Thursday fired off a potshot at Apple:
One theory is that Apple is acting out of desperation. Tim Cook has been talking about innovation but not many seem to believe him. At Goldman’s conference, Tim Cook said that innovation culture at Apple has never been stronger. Perhaps Apple leaked details of iWatch to put some meat on the statement by Cook. The other theory is that Apple found out about a watch-like product that Samsung is working on.
This is silliness. Why would a company as profitable worry about a product that has nothing to do with its core offering. If Apple is working on an iWatch it will be an iPod that is tied to the iPhone. A side product – like Apple TV – or a remote device that directs other Apple products in youDahomey environment. If there is any difference in Apple operations it’s with the leadership team. With the death of Steve Jobs the company clearly has lost it’s best Product Manager. The Maps debacle would have never happened and iPad 3 would never have been released.
That New Apple Smell
I’m in half-year heaven. All of the stars, planets and wayward asteroids must have lined up before hurtling themselves toward the Earth…I now have an iPhone 5 and a new iPad mini. Okay the iMac is nearly 4 years old but (knock on wood) it’s still running like a top.
So what is this six month reprieve? I figure that we Apple people have about a half a year before we have the overwhelming need to perform an “un-boxing”. It’s a half year of heaven before the newer better operating system or amazing new feature arrives. In this extraordinary period of of time Apple end-users are on top of the digital world.
Fan boys and pundits recently have been running at the mouth at how Apple will unveil just little advances because all the big Jobsonian events just won’t happen anymore. Well, if that’s the case then so be it. It also means I will be spending more time on Mount Digital-Don’t-Wish-You-Had! Seriously I had been in a dry spell since iPad first generation. So I truly hope this feeling sticks around a while.
What if the pundits are wrong…that’s okay…the next 6(?) months will be like a Florida vacation in February.
Change the name of Newhouse
If the S. I. Newhouse School of Communications is one of the premier journalism schools in the country it should change its name. The Newhouse company – Advance Publications- is anything but premier.
Newhouse the newspaper company like any other company can make mistakes. But these people are beyond mistakes. First, for 12 years they denied that a digital revolution was taking place in their industry. Instead of embracing the change and looking for ways to be innovative they buried their heads in the sand and waited for the fad to go away. It didn’t. So now the newspaper in Syracuse, New York will be published on a limited basis during the week. They have taken back their digital property, Syracuse.Com after years of neglect in the hope of salvaging something. And…wait for it…here comes the biggest mistake. They essentially laid off, fire, let go, eliminate, pink slip, forced retire, awe…let’s just call the kettle black here…tossed away their most experienced journalists, the people we have been reading and depending on for years so they can rehire them at a lower rate or hire cheaper, “Syracuse is just a stepping stone” S. I. Newhouse grads to write, shoot (pictures) and upload to Syracuse.Com.
I’ll be kind. It’s hard to predict and understand change when it’s happening. For what some 70 years now the Post Standard has been building a relationship with the community through it’s reporters and editors. In 2012 this company decided that Dick Case, Mark Bialczak, Maureen Nolan, Gloria Wright and the list goes on and on just didn’t matter. Hell anyone can write 10 inches of copy…right?
A few years ago my wife and I unsubscribed to the Post Standard. We both were getting the paper at work so the home delivery never made it past the recycling bin. Reluctantly we called the Post to unsubscribe. We were hoping the perky young girl on the other end of the phone would have tried to offer a deal; ”Sunday’s Free” or something so we can stop what we were going to do.
She just said all perky “No problem…thank you bah-buy.”
As January 31, 2013 comes ever closer with all the big changes I think I’ll bury my head in the sand and wait for all this to end. You know all I can say is…”Thank you and bah-buy!”
The New iTunes Redesign
Redesigned iTunes 11 Brings iCloud Streaming and New Playback Features
TidBITS offers a good summary of the redesign. The iCloud streaming seems like a great feature for those of us that don’t want to store music files on laptops…
Poor Dan Benjamin
It hasn’t been a great year when it comes to podcast hosts on Dan Benjamin’s 5 By 5 Network. The podcasting company really was coming in strong and clear in the 1st quarter of 2012. Serious internet stars like Merlin Mann, Jon Gruber, John Siracusa, Andy Ihnatko and Jim Dalrymple truly were among the top five at 5By5(yes there are even more). However, Benjamin’s 5By5 network lost 3 majors players in 2012.First Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball fame jumped ship with his The Talk Show to do a podcast with the Mule Radio Syndicate. No explanation given. Both men publically quote and reference each other in a friendly way. So presumably the split came as a business decision. If I were a betting man I would guess that Gruber is probably raking in more ASSets at Mule Radio then the numbers he was getting at 5By5.
Marco Arment, host of Build & Analyze and Host John Siracusa of Hypercritical just a few weeks ago announced their last shows will come at the end of the month. Both hosts said basically the same thing for their departure. Each saying that the podcasts had run their course. They are both committed to their careers and other projects and the extra burden of research, resources and production of a weekly podcast was just too much. Both say they will make guest appearances in the future on 5By5. Whether it’s on 5By5’s newest effort The Crossover or other podcasts we hope to continue to enjoy their opinions and views of the world.
Kudos to Mr. Benjamin he had the foresight and good fortune to have these three outstanding individuals showcased in a forum that was entertaining and loaded with great information. As referenced earlier, Benjamin still has internet powerhouses in his dug-out. Gina Trapani, Horace Dediu, and of course Merlin Mann will be podcasting about on the network. What also deserves mention are the new, strong and very promising 5By5 podcast rookies; Brett Terpstra, David Sparks and Katie Floyd. It will be interesting to see what podcasts shake out to fill the holes left behind by Gruber, Siracusa and Arment.
As a long time radio and television producer I’m hoping Benjamin can step behind the scenes and tweak some of these other podcasts so that hosts can concentrate on content and not formatics. It seems the lessons to be learned from 2012 are to make the job of hosting a 5By5 podcasting as easy as possible this way maybe burnout can be avoided or at least delayed.
As more and more Americans turn off their television and listen or watch podcasts I believe they will see its true value. As new, different and diverse points of view can be offered about all kinds of subjects networks like 5By5 and Mule Radio Syndicate will play a bigger and bigger role in people’s lives. By offering support and useful criticism Americans can offer podcast producers insights to help with content, flow and listenability. These are the qualities that are lacking in many TV and radio programs today. We hope the mistakes that were made with network television and radio will not be made with this form of communication.
Dear Andy & Santa
Andy Ihnatko has some interesting thoughts concerning the iPad Mini and its supposed announcement in October. He states his concerns that if such a major announcement is coming he has yet to see any signs of it. Check it out: http://ihnatko.com/
Andy, two things to think about…Timmy is going “double-down” on the secrecy thing. And, why blow sales on the iPad pre-Christmas? The iPad mini is the perfect size for a stocking stuffer (hint-hint-wink-wink) and it’s supposedly is so much cheaper than it’s big brother.
The announcement has to come in a couple of weeks. I’ve already DM-ed Santa and the mini is on the list!
And one more thing…
Horace Dediu’s post “Building and dismantling the Windows advantage” offers a great explanation of what happened to Microsoft’s dominant market position. May I offer one more reason why many people may have turned to Apple after the turn of the century? And, I propose this as just one of many reasons but a reason none the less…The Apple store. Non-nerds feel comfortable buying a computer knowing that if something goes wrong or if they have a question they can drop off their i-device to a genius and say “fix it”! The Apple store also was built and is run to serve its customers not just to sell stuff. That, I believe is a great advantage to the millions of people who are computer users and not hobbyists.
Calling the kettle black …. correctly!
The first rule of good journalism is being fair. Credibility begins with fairness. Even if you take MG Siegler’s article Blackballs as gospel you have to admire Microsoft in a way. It’s kinda like watching an old prize fighter making a bid to stay on top way after his prime has past.
Is Apple “pulling some strings”?
John Gruber offers an excellent post on why Microsoft decided to unveil it’s own tablet this week. If I could throw another log onto the fire of his argument why Microsoft has shifted it’s mission of just offering software products to now shipping (at some point) hardware too.
My argument starts back last October when Apple announced it’s “cutting the cord” on it’s handheld products and eliminating the need for a Mac or PC. How many people own iPods, iPhones and iPads and run iTunes on a Windows platform? The cord cutting and iCloud product announcement outmoded the PC… If Microsoft wants a piece of the consumer market this week’s move makes perfect business sense.
One more thing. If you consider Apple’s move in creating its own maps app and eliminating the need for Google maps, down playing Google search and the results of cutting the cord has taken with Microsoft’s Surface and the expected Google tablet its like the end of the Godfather. When Michael Corleone has all of his rivals killed. Killed might be over the top for this example but there is a certain amount of gangster cool to Apple’s moves. I don’t really know if all this was part of a three year plan Steve Jobs can take credit in designing or if it’s Tim Cook showing his leadership direction and skills but Apple seems to be taking care of all the family business by quietly eliminating the need for other products…
Bill Pfohl 